1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computers, and more particularly to apparatus, method and computer program product embodiments for implementing selective write protection mechanisms for disaster recovery testing in a computing storage environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
As larger and more complex disaster recoverable data storage systems become reality, there is introduced a greater need for the user to be able to test their data centers' recoverability. Testing the recoverability of an installation allows the user to validate that its personnel, its information technology (IT) infrastructure, the host software and the storage product itself can handle an unexpected disaster.
A number of storage system installations may be subdivided into two segments. A first segment may be referred to as the production location, having production hosts connected to storage system hardware. The second segment may be referred to as the disaster recovery (DR) location, which is usually at remote distances from the production location. Data written to the production components of the installation may be then replicated to the DR location, thus providing a secondary copy of the data in the event the production location is lost.
In the event the production location is lost, users must recover all production responsibilities at the DR location. This may be accomplished by maintenance of a set of available backup hosts, which are connected to the DR location storage system hardware, and simply not utilized. In order to utilize these backup hosts for production, the production host environment/configuration is constantly mirrored to the DR location. This mirrored image can be restored into a backup host, which can then be used to continue production processing to the DR storage system hardware in the event the production location or locations are lost.
Since the process of restoring a host image and continuing production from a DR location is not trivial, it is beneficial and desirable by users to simulate disasters and test the configuration's recoverability so that events may smoothly transpire in the event of a real disaster.